diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 6200d53a172e..44ff47d54ee6 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -948,12 +948,15 @@ project(':iceberg-arrow') {
       exclude group: 'io.netty', module: 'netty-common'
       exclude group: 'com.google.code.findbugs', module: 'jsr305'
     }
-    implementation(libs.arrow.memory.netty) {
-      exclude group: 'com.google.code.findbugs', module: 'jsr305'
-      exclude group: 'io.netty', module: 'netty-common'
+    implementation(libs.arrow.memory.unsafe) {
       exclude group: 'io.netty', module: 'netty-buffer'
+      exclude group: 'io.netty', module: 'netty-common'
+      exclude group: 'com.google.code.findbugs', module: 'jsr305'
     }
-
+    // netty-buffer is not a transitive dep of arrow-vector or arrow-memory-unsafe;
+    // it must be declared explicitly so downstream modules (e.g. Spark) that
+    // exclude netty from their own deps and rely on iceberg-arrow to supply it
+    // continue to find it on the runtime classpath.
     runtimeOnly libs.netty.buffer
 
     implementation(libs.parquet.avro) {
@@ -964,10 +967,9 @@ project(':iceberg-arrow') {
     }
 
     testImplementation project(path: ':iceberg-core', configuration: 'testArtifacts')
-    // To run ArrowReaderTest test cases, :netty-common is needed.
-    // We import :netty-common through :arrow-memory-netty
-    // so that the same version as used by the :arrow-memory-netty module is picked.
-    testImplementation libs.arrow.memory.netty
+    // ArrowReaderTest requires netty-common; pull it in directly without
+    // bringing in arrow-memory-netty's broken allocator (fails on Java 25).
+    testImplementation libs.netty.common
     testImplementation libs.hadoop3.common
     testImplementation libs.hadoop3.mapreduce.client.core
   }
diff --git a/gradle/libs.versions.toml b/gradle/libs.versions.toml
index 4f04662ba60b..2e453f286b2f 100644
--- a/gradle/libs.versions.toml
+++ b/gradle/libs.versions.toml
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ antlr-antlr4 = { module = "org.antlr:antlr4", version.ref = "antlr" }
 antlr-runtime = { module = "org.antlr:antlr4-runtime", version.ref = "antlr" }
 antlr-antlr413 = { module = "org.antlr:antlr4", version.ref = "antlr413" }
 antlr-runtime413 = { module = "org.antlr:antlr4-runtime", version.ref = "antlr413" }
-arrow-memory-netty = { module = "org.apache.arrow:arrow-memory-netty", version.ref = "arrow" }
+arrow-memory-unsafe = { module = "org.apache.arrow:arrow-memory-unsafe", version.ref = "arrow" }
 arrow-vector = { module = "org.apache.arrow:arrow-vector", version.ref = "arrow" }
 avro-avro = { module = "org.apache.avro:avro", version.ref = "avro" }
 awssdk-bom = { module = "software.amazon.awssdk:bom", version.ref = "awssdk-bom" }
@@ -165,6 +165,7 @@ lz4Java = { module = "at.yawk.lz4:lz4-java", version.ref = "lz4Java" }
 microprofile-openapi-api = { module = "org.eclipse.microprofile.openapi:microprofile-openapi-api", version.ref = "microprofile-openapi-api" }
 nessie-client = { module = "org.projectnessie.nessie:nessie-client", version.ref = "nessie" }
 netty-buffer = { module = "io.netty:netty-buffer", version.ref = "netty-buffer" }
+netty-common = { module = "io.netty:netty-common", version.ref = "netty-buffer" }
 object-client-bundle = { module = "com.emc.ecs:object-client-bundle", version.ref = "object-client-bundle" }
 orc-core = { module = "org.apache.orc:orc-core", version.ref = "orc" }
 parquet-avro = { module = "org.apache.parquet:parquet-avro", version.ref = "parquet" }